Church Gig

The topic of The Royal Wedding briefly surfaced last night at church choir.

First to clarify the idea of church choir. Almost every singer in the San Diego Opera chorus also has what's called a church gig.

A church gig can include any of or all of the following: cantoring, leading a section in the choir, singing at weddings and funerals, and soloing for large choral-work concerts--such as Handel's Messiah.

I have been the tenor section leader/soloist at St. Mark's United Methodist in Clairemont, Mission Hills UCC, St. Sophia Catholic Church in Casa de Oro, and currently at St. Elizabeth-Seton Catholic Church in La Costa.

I should mention that these are paid positions. I'm not having a religious crisis a la Woody Allen in Hannah and Her Sisters.

Almost every church choir in town has rehearsal on Thursday nights and the opera chorus schedules around that. The only non-negotiable conflicts happen during Holy Week, the week leading up to Easter.

In some cases, singers are so vital to their church job that they will turn down an opera contract because it conflicts. This year the conflicting opera production was Faust.